Meta’s Verse: CoH Player Summit

Meta’s Verse: CoH Player Summit

By Meticulous Meta, OnRPG Paragon Reporter

This weekend’s player summit was all about powersets, costumes, zones, and community. Throughout the day there were references to Issue 23 and things we can be expecting with it that we can already see in beta. I won’t be mentioning those today. I need something to talk about later! But have no fear there is plenty more to talk about. Some of it was leaked so a lot of people already knew about it. But the thing that made this player summit truly unique were the panels where the players got to make proposals.

Powersets

At the start of the Issue 23 beta someone was very naughty and stumbled upon a few powersets we weren’t supposed to know about. Thanks to the Internet the whole world found out moments later. This weekend the devs confirmed three of the powersets much to everyone’s excitement. Sure, learning about them secretly is awesome. But having them confirmed by a dev is even better! So what three were confirmed? Nature Affinity, Symbiotic Armor and my personal favorite…Water Blast. Nature Affinity is to be a new healing over time and debuff set. Now, when it comes to City of Heroes I’m terrible at healing. I prefer to focus on the punching. I do always try out a new power when it comes out though. Plus the whole nature theme opens up a lot of opportunities for characters I’ve always wanted to make. Water blast is well..water…that blasts. I remember just a few issues ago they said it wouldn’t be happening because they just didn’t have the tech to make it look as good as it deserved to be. And now here we are! Sure, it’s just another blast set but its water! I think it is pretty safe to say water has always been a big part of the super hero genre. And now it shall be ours! Symbiotic Armor is one I’m still a bit unsure of. That always happens when there is a new mechanic introduced. This one though I have to say sounds pretty darn awesome. The new mechanic is called Absorption. And it’s all about absorbing as a defence.

Design a powerset workshop. This was just the first of several design panels where devs and players worked together after taking proposals to design something we will see in game. A lot of great proposals were heard. And we might even see some others in the game in the future. But for now, we know Radiation Amor is a go! Now, to start with I know a bunch of people are super down on radiation because it’s boring. But you know, boring can be good! It allows for more variety than if you had say…a walking tree mastermind. Not that we can expect a tree mastermind powerset anytime soon, though it would be awesome. The powerset is going to have a bunch of awesomely named powers like: Half Life, Gamma Boost, Fallout Shelter and Beta Decay.

Costumes

What is easily one of the biggest things that draws me to City of Heroes is the huge variation allowed when making outfits. This is made possible by coming out with new costumes all the time. And I will admit I go onto the VIP beta server to make new costumes. Sure I might check out a new powerset to see what it looks like. Or do a quick explore of a new zone. But it’s the costumes that I want to know in and out and start planning before I can even properly work with them. At the last player summit the Retro Scifi costume set was created. And though its not been released live yet it is in beta which can only mean it isn’t far off. The leather armor and chainmail armor sets were discussed more in-depth. Most importantly it was announced they would be free for VIPs. Of course we have to wait for Issue 23 for them though.

We also have to wait for Mecha Armor. This armor set is one of the really unique ones though. You have to reach a reward level of Tier 9 VIP to get them. Another that came as little surprise to anyone was the prospect of new tights. This is something that devs have been working with players on in a section of the forums for some time now.

There was one costume set announced which really got my interest and was completely unexpected. Cyberpunk! As soon as I heard cyberpunk my mind went wild! So many possible ways they could go with it. It’s such a broad genre and the last ‘punk’ set they did turned out awesome. The design a costume workshop again had a ton of great ideas. And again the devs said that we might see more than one of the ideas in the future. But the winner was the Post Apocalyptic set proposed by the one and only Arbiter Fabulous. A ton of ideas were thrown around taking inspiration from everything Mad Max to Bruce Campbell. I imagine though that much like the Retro Scifi costume set there will be a lot more plotting and discussion before anything is final.

Zones and More

One of the bigger draws to the player summit was the state your case for a zone revamp. Now this wasn’t intended to do anything but give the players a chance to voice their ideas to the devs and create some conversation. Quite a few great ideas were proposed and in the end the devs seemed most favorable towards the idea of the Independence Port revamp proposal. While we aren’t being promised anything I think I actually agree. Independence Port could be awesome. Right now though it suffers due to being empty and huge. Anything they do would be a huge improvement. So long as they don’t hit it with a major alien attack.

The first set of Super Packs has been an amazingly huge success the devs say. And with 600,000 packs sold I think it’s hard to argue with them. So the next super pack has been given the green light. This one is being called Rogues and Vigilantes, and that’s all that has been said about it.

At the end of the player summit those in attendance were given a survey. Now we get the chance to answer those questions as well. They do ask you to put in your email address to confirm you’re actually a player though, which I think is only fair really. If you’re interested in doing it click here to go to the forums which will direct you to the right place. Overall the summit looked like it was a fantastic time and I wish I didn’t live so far from California so I could attend in the future. The important thing to keep in mind about everything that was said is that there are no dates and no guarantees. We still have plenty to look forward to though. But for now I have to go take care of a little Nemesis plot.